Knuble praises former Bruins teammates Bergeron, Thomas

Mike Knuble is back for a third season with the Washington
Capitals, but he embraces the chance to discuss his former
club’s Stanley Cup championship and the only two of his
Boston Bruins teammates still with the team: Patrice Bergeron and
Tim Thomas.

When the Caps exited the 2011 postseason in the second round,
Knuble turned his attention to his old team, who gutted out the
championship with two down-to-the-wire seven-game series against
the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks.

“I think that in the final, everyone was getting ready to
just hand it to Vancouver in a walkaway– that it was going to
be an easy series,” Knuble says. “I don’t know if
it was when Patrice (Bergeron) got bit (by Alexandre Burrows) or
the hit on (Nathan) Horton, but they just seemed to get really mad
all of the sudden. I think it was pretty obvious and I felt like
they pushed back and pushed Vancouver out of the series. It was
pretty impressive to watch.”

Knuble was 31 and just coming off his first 30-goal campaign
with the B’s as the club’s 7th Player Award winner in
2003 when the teenage Bergeron arrived in Boston as the 45th
overall pick that previous June. Whatever Knuble might have
expected from the rookie, he admitted to being surprised at how the
Quebec native established himself right out of the gate.

“He was in the league at 18. He came in just under the
radar- – he was a pick that summer I think,” Knuble
says of Bergeron. “He was added to the training camp roster
and all of the sudden, we’re a few games into the preseason,
and he’s playing every one of them.

“Marty Lapointe took him in and guided him through his
first year. Patrice was just steady all year and I think they were
waiting for him to break down and slow down and come down a little
bit, but he never did.”

Knuble left Boston for Philadelphia as a free agent in 2004 when
the Bruins refused to tender offers to any of its veterans on
expiring deals in anticipation of the lockout and new rules that
didn’t come to fruition. He was in Boston on the October,
2007 night when then-Flyer Randy Jones drove Bergeron headfirst
into the TD Garden boards, costing the young veteran the remainder
of the season with a severe concussion and putting his career in
jeopardy.

“I was playing in Philly and he got hit there and it ended
up being a lot longer process (to be an NHL star) than I think
anybody anticipated,” says Knuble. “And I think for
him, it was a lot longer than he anticipated and he’s been
the man there for a while. He was already a great player before he
got hit and he hasn’t really missed a beat since he came
back. “

These days, Knuble can only smile and shake his head when asked
about Bergeron and what makes him one of Boston’s core
players and stars.

“I just remember him being very slippery; it was hard to
knock him off the puck,” he said. “He didn’t have
the hardest shot, wasn’t the fastest skater, wasn’t the
biggest guy- he was 18- but he was just slippery with the puck and
he slipped through everyone with it. He was comfortable from the
start, so he was just quietly flying under the radar, but never
slowed down.”

When the subject switches to the reigning Vezina Trophy winner
and playoff MVP, there’s another shake of the head and
chuckle from Knuble. Although his actual NHL ice time with Thomas
was only limited to a few games during the 2002-03 season, he saw
plenty of the netminder in training camps and practices.

“At the time, he was so unorthodox,” says Knuble,
trying to explain why it took so long for Thomas to establish
himself as an NHL superstar. “I don’t think anyone was
going to stand behind that style. It probably scared the hell out
of everybody as far as their jobs went, if they were going to back
this guy or not. But, they kept bringing him back, bringing him
back.

“He battles so hard and I think one thing you know is that
he’s trying on every shot and until the puck officially
crosses the line, and even then, he’s still trying to hide
it. You know, if he can grab it before it’s all the way over
the line, he’s still going to go for it.”

Thomas and Knuble are kindred spirits. Like Thomas, Knuble spent
a good amount of time in the press box in Boston as a bit part and
fourth-liner under Mike Keenan and Robbie Ftorek until an injury to
Sergei Samsonov during the ’02-03 season forced the Bruins to
make Knuble a full-time player. Like Thomas has done in Boston
since given his first real opportunity to play in the highest level
back in 2006, Knuble seized his chance, scoring 30 goals on Joe
Thornton’s line and becoming one of the team’s most
respected veterans in the pre-lockout years.

“He’s earned everything he’s gotten,”
Knuble says of Thomas. “It’s been a long road.
He’s one of those guys whose post-30 success has been
phenomenal. I guess goaltenders come into their age a little later,
but I have to give him credit sticking with it and keeping the
faith and keep battling and battling until he got his chance to run
with it.”

At one time a member of Boston’s “700-pound
line” with Thornton and Glen Murray, Knuble still remembers
who it was that christened the unit: Bruins head coach Claude
Julien, back when he was Montreal’s bench boss.

“He’s been around,” Knuble says when reminded
of Julien’s pre-Boston days. “Nobody second-guesses his
knowledge. He’s got some good parts, even minus Marc Savard,
you start with (Zdeno) Chara on the back end and Timmy in goal and
it’s a great situation to be around and great situation to be
the coach. I think the players respond to him and I think they like
him as a coach.”

Having won a Stanley Cup with Detroit in 1998, Knuble
understands what the current Bruins and his two old pals are going
through. He’s glad for them, but at age 39, throws out one
last sage observation before moving away from his stall to get on
with his day.

“Enjoy every moment of being a champion,” he said.
“The Stanley Cup is so hard to win. But, I’m very happy
for those guys that they were able to do it.”